May 17 2009
Manila Traffic - Crunch
Yes, it’s another in the series of Manila traffic posts. And yes, traffic is still out there in tremendous volume. When I was headed to Korea folks told me that I had to prepare myself for the traffic situation there. Gotta tell you Korea doesn’t even come close traffic wise to Manila. And I was just amazed at the silence while riding. It’s odd not hearing the constant horn blowing. The one thing that is the same though is the bus situation. Those huge passenger bus drivers rule the road and they don’t care if you are around or not. You had better move for them because they intend to go where they please.
We almost made it with the vehicle in country for 6 months with no significant events. Note I said ALMOST. Last week as we returned from Christopher’s music concert we stopped to grab a quick bite of dinner. As we left the drive through and headed to the road back to our place we encountered the event you really have to watch out for - that right hand turn by the vehicle in the middle lane. I didn’t see it completely, and I am glad I was not the one driving. I just caught the four letter words and felt the impact. It didnt wind up being so bad. At first when I got out to look I thought the driver front end was going to be pretty messed up because of the way it pushed us over. I guess the large bumper helped and we really don’t have a huge amount of damage. What we did have was an hour or more delay to get home because you have to wait on security to come make their pictures etc, then go to the police station to file your report…which doesn’t declare anyone at fault. Odd huh? That’s just how it is I guess, even when fault seems to be without any question, it is left to the insurance companies.
Such is life, and as long as no one was hurt vehicles are fixable and replaceable and it’s just another day in Manila Traffic with one more memory to file away.
